A love story for Megatron
by Kaisu
Summary: A princess from Cybertron lands on Earth, hard. The distress caused her to lose her memory, including anything to do with Megatron; much to his dismay. As enemies of the past, Megatron plans to make her pay for her hatred, trouble, and wrongdoings by degrading her, just as she did to him and his Decepticons so long ago. (I know what you're saying.. memory loss and princesses? WTF)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: I know I know... a princess you say!? What!? There's no princesses in Transformers! :P And another story that has memory loss?! Psh, cobwobble!...You guys know I don't care;) "But Kaisu, It sounds like an overdone plot, and with an OC no less!"... why yes, hm yes it does... **

**But really, give it a chance!:) **

**Oh yeah... doesn't follow storyline...AT ALL. **

**So... on with it! XD ~K  
**

**(Actually, I had 2 princess stories going for Megatron. Why princess? Why not:P Because I don't think he'd settle for anything less, that's why.)  
**

**A short love story for Megatron **

Summary: A princess from Cybertron lands on Earth, hard. The distress caused her to lose her memory, including anything to do with Megatron; much to his dismay. With the hatred and problems they caused for each other in the past, Megatron plans to make her pay for her wrongdoings by degrading her, just as she did to him and his Decepticons so long ago.

* * *

It started with an attack.

"Not now!" A commander said.

"We have to alert the Princess!" another crew member said.

"She's safe where she's at, this enemy won't budge!"

Another big strike struck the ship that held the Princess, a few crew members, and a few important documents. The ship was passing by a large planet, blue with scattered greenery, but the last impact of the enemy's blast had taken out their engines, and they had to evacuate. The attacking ship disengaged and pulled away from the royal ship known as the Atlas.

"It's pulling away, we have to get into the evacuation pods!"

"I demand to know who was attacking us!" A high-pitched shriek suddenly came from the corridor to the bridge. "Stop trying to keep me in that room! Lousy lame-ass crew..." she tossed her head and looked out the ship's looking windows.

"Princess, we must evacuate, NOW." The commander said.

"Impossible! We fight back!" She had no idea how much they had been fighting back already, she had no idea at all because they didn't want her in the way.

"Your highness, it's no use, we have been fighting, our ship will not thrust and they will dock. We must go NOW." As the commander said that, the attacking ship pulled onto the side of them, ready to dock.

"I should never trust anyone of you to do anything right!" She threw her hands up in the air and stomped over to the main computer and downloaded something and carried it with her in her hand.

As much as the commander would have liked to see the wench taken hostage by the unknown attacker, his duties to the royal family didn't waiver. He grabbed her forcefully by the arm and shoved her nearer to an evacuation pod. "Get in, Princess!"

After latching the door shut on a kicking and screaming Princess, the commander ordered the rest of his crew into the other pods and then he got into one himself. Strapping in, he closed his optics and felt the propulsion of the pod shift him as it began to fly. His only job was to save the Princess, it's the only thing he'd ever done, been taught to do, and that's what he was going to do...

* * *

_On Earth..._

A large, ominous mech walked towards his ship's bridge just in time to see his SIC flailing his arms about in panic, rousing the crew.

"Starscream." He said.

Starscream turned his sharp optics Megatron's way and he walked briskly towards him.

"Don't get my men excited just because you do!" Megatron spat, just as he's spat many time before to the same mech in the same manner.

"Lord Megatron!" Stascream pleaded, "But this time I know that you will agree in my sentiments! There are escape pods from a royal ship headed to Earth!"

"A 'royal' ship?" Megatron replied. Starscream was right, his interest was peaked. Megatron smirked slightly and casually made his way to a computer. Soundwave came to stand by his side and opened up the video feed that showed the 9 small pods falling from the sky.

"They may not survive, they are falling from too great a height!" Starscream exclaimed.

"Soundwave, give me a close up of one of the pods, I want to see who this is." Megatron said with exuberance.

Soundwave zoomed in and followed one of the falling pods, his camera shaky with speed. Once he could track the pod, he focused, and the royal symbol could be read. Atlas.

Megatron's eyes burned with fire when he knew who's symbol it was. His red eyes were brighter than before and he lowered his head with intent.

"Gargh! Firestone!" Starscream growled when he recognized the symbol himself.

Megatron nodded at Starscream, "Anyone following them?"

Starscream scrambled on his computer station and he brought up the other attacker ship. "Just this one, but their identity is concealed."

"I'll chance it..." Megatron whispered in a low voice, "I know these royals, and if it were up to me..." Megatron turned from the screen and addressed the growing crew behind him, "...I'd leave no survivors." He said it with an evil twinkle in his optic and a sinister snarl on the edge of his mouth. "Let's go make sure of that..." He commanded, and the crew.

"But what about the other ship!?" Starscream shrieked.

Megatron looked at Starscream with expectancy, "It's not a big ship, Starscream...we are more than capable of taking care of them too." Megatron charged his arm cannons and smiled, "Besides, I'm bored!" and he began to laugh as he lined up with his troops to greet the pods.

...

The Decepticons stepped out of the green light right after the pods crashed on the surface of the Earth. It was a far fall to take so, there may not be any survivors, just as Starscream had said, but Megatron wanted to make sure of it. Out of the nine pods that crashed, Soundwave picked up only four life signals. Starscream traced his map and led a few drones with him to take care of the two in one area. Megatron kicked a few pods that remained still and then when one pod opened, he snarled and aimed his cannon to it.

The commander of the royal ship wearily tried to sit up, but the impact had damaged his motor ability. When his tired optics rested on Megatron's cannon facing him, he drew back in fear and whispered, "Princess, forgive me, I have failed you..." and his vision went bright with color as Megatron fired his perfectly aimed shot. He fell limp back into his pod.

Megatron's audio receptors perked, "Princess?" He huffed. "Soundwave!"

Soundwave appeared by Megatron's side but before Megatron could ask Soundwave to track who they wanted, a pod which had landed only 50 feet away opened. Megatron walked heavily towards the steaming pod which had just opened, hoping that he would find the very person he was thinking about. He stopped when he saw a sleek white and silver body heave itself out and roll on the ground, smoke covering most of her body.

Megatron growled as an animal would when he saw her, and continued his heavy gait.

The Princess laid face up on her back towards the blue sky, she was disoriented, and felt strange. She stared at the sky until a shadow blocked her view. A large silver mech looked down at her, with a face that was so angry, that she began to shake from his gaze alone. Her energy reserves, already low, began draining faster with her consciousness, and her body began to shut down.

"Crumb." Megatron said to her. "You low-life, ugly bitch."

She heard only the first word before losing her hearing as her body was shutting down fast. But before she could shut down completely, she saw several other mechs gather behind him who began to protest and shout inaudible things at her. Then she fell back.

"Bitch..." Megatron said.

"Megatron! Your perfect change to kill the bitch! Arrgh, such agony she's caused!" Starscream shouted.

"It **IS** a perfect time to take her out! And I would love nothing more than to see her spark ripped to shreds by my own hand...what she has done to so many others..." Megatron's voice lowered, "But she deserves no more than a slow, tedious, torturous death..." Megatron's throat gargled with acid and the hate he had for her resonated throughout his crew. "I want to make sure she suffers for all the injustice she's caused!"

"But master! She could be gone with the flick of your hand right now!" Starscream pleaded.

"Silence Starscream!" Megatron yelled towards him. "I do not take lives in cold blood! I take revenge..." Megatron reminded him. "Which is all she deserves...get her in the ship, NOW, and have Knock Out make sure she's completely cognizant before I get my hands on her.

"Yes sir!" Starscream nodded.

As Megatron's crew rushed to deliver the Princess to the Nemesis, Megatron stared after her. He had no intention of wasting this opportunity to see that she received a proper punishment for all of the problems that she had caused him in the past. Though it had been a long time ago, the grievances, the hatred, and the adversity she and her brother caused him still sat heavy and uncomfortable in his abdomen. He would be sure to not let her forget that. His mind wandered into the past, as he made himself angry with the memories...

* * *

_Past:_

_They were in the middle of a war. Not just any war. The war for Cybertron. It wasn't just one war, it was many. Certainly there were the Autobots and the Decepticons, but there were also all the monarchy's and small democracies and random socialist sectors. They were all at war. The monarchy who caused him the most problems were the Alpha sector though, and he hated them all. Megatron had forgotten how long the quarrel had been going on, but it didn't matter because he was the leader of the Decepticons now and he had a job to do. He had just toppled another Autobot base when he heard the high-pitched annoying laughter. He looked up to see the Princess's ship gliding above them._

"_You look so proud, oh strong Megatron!" Princess Swift said. "That's a nice pile of scrap you've claimed!" she laughed at him again, and he glared. _

"_You should come down here and tell me that, PRINCESS." he held his arms out, inviting her to the challenge._

"_Oh you know I'd never get my hands dirty like that. I couldn't dream of touching your filthy armor and pitiful excuses for instruments. What scum." She held her face up from the deck of the ship she rode on. "You and your low-life followers go on with your daily routine, and oh, I've got a present for you come to think of it!" She exclaimed while winking slyly at the captain. The ship released it's waste storage on top of Megatron and his Decepticons. Megatron growled and shielded his head, as did his mechs._

"_You bitch!" he yelled after her. "All of Cybertron is for my taking and you fail to see that you are losing! I will have my whole cake, and you are but a crumb to me!" Megatron yelled after her._

"_Boohoo..." Swift mewled back at him, "Get your dirty Decepticon filth away from my sector!"_

"_You're a crumb that I will stomp on!" Megatron couldn't waste his time with such small talk, a war had to be fought, and he knew the royal numbers were staggering, but she still insisted on being a wretch about it. He gritted his metal teeth at her and swore he'd make her pay someday, but he had more important things to do right now..._

* * *

_Present..._

The jostling around of her body must have awoken her for a split second, and her optics came online. She peered around with her dull red eyes at her surroundings. She was being carried through a long corridor. She felt so weak, why couldn't she move!? A mech with red and white armor led them, and she looked at the faces of those around her. She remembered seeing the large shadow above her and the group of mechs behind him. Perhaps something had happened and they were going to fix her. That made sense. She dropped her head limply when her body shut itself down again.

* * *

_Out in space..._

From space, the attacking ship sat, watching the scene below. They were hidden, and so were it's crew.

"Did they take her?" a voice said.

"Yes. Megatron has her."

"Good...he won't let her survive. Let's go. He'll do the dirty work for us."

* * *

_On the Nemesis..._

Knock Out busied himself with the Princess's knee joint, as instructed. Making sure that she could at least be put together enough for Megatron to pull her apart again. He shivered with the thought. He knew the disdain that they had for each other, but a quick scan of her processing activity told him that the hatred would probably be shared by one only, and he wasn't exactly sure how to tell that to Megatron.

When she finally opened her eyes from the deep slumber, she lay in confusion for a small moment. She rolled her head to the sides, looking at her surroundings, and while they looked vaguely familiar, they looked also vaguely foreign. The red doctor's clammor made her roll her head down to peer at him. For a brief moment, they exchanged looks, and then Knock Out returned to his work on her knee joint. She plopped her head back on the working table and sighed. She wondered what kind of mischief she had gotten herself into. She'd remember once her energy was back, she thought.

Just then, the door to the med bay opened and three large mechs stood in the doorway. Knock Out turned his head toward the opened door and stood up quickly.

"Megatron." Knock Out said, "my lord." He backed away from the three who entered to give them space. Soundwave and Starscream followed behind their leader as he walked slowly and deliberately into the room. He held his chest high and locked his arms behind his back, glaring down at her spitefully and happy to see that she was finally conscious.

"I love when wishes are granted..." he spoke to her softly and evilly, his words dripping with acid, "Those deserving of fate like this would be lucky to make it out of here alive...and some are more deserving of unending torture!" He spoke sharply at her.

She said nothing back to him, but listened intently. Megatron came down on her quickly and slammed both hands on either side of her head, sending a clamoring jolt through her audio sensors. She flinched but did say a word.

"What do YOU think?" Megatron acknowledged her with a flick of his head, "The latter maybe?" he snarled in her face.

Thinking she'd done something wrong, her optics turned into wide pearls of terror. She turned to glance at the other mechs around her to see what their reactions were, and why she was in such dire straits. The grey mech with blue glowing lines wore a blank mask, and the grey and red one was sneering in her direction, arms crossed across his lean body. The doctor who was working on her a very short time ago sat on a stool, looking as if his work had been interrupted.

Her eyes fell back onto the menacing mech who's face was so very close to hers. She felt as if she'd forgotten something, maybe something she was supposed to do.

"I-...I" the words stumbled out of her mouth, "I think...I..." she nearly whispered the words before trailing off, trying to remember why he was angry with her.

Megatron took little notice of the shape of her optics, the confusion they lay within them and the questions she asked his face.

"You should be suffering..." Megatron rolled his head forward and growled into her so that she could almost feel the vibrations of his vocalizer in her spark, "You deserve nothing more, crumb!" He regarded her with the nickname he had chosen for her long ago.

She absorbed all of his words but couldn't put together her own to reply. Her eyes wandered around the room again, what she could see of it from Megatron's large body shadowing the majority of it from her vision. The red doctor was leaning back on his stool again, a confused and perplexed look growing on his face as he looked back at her.

Her optics returned to Megatron's face, his optics pummeling her for answers.

Megatron looked her face over, he wondered why she didn't want to speak to him, if this was just another game of hers, he was becoming impatient fast.

"My leige..." Knock Out mumbled from behind him, "If I might..."

Megatron turned his head slowly to regard his doctor, "What!"

"The results of her processor scan came back as damaged." Knock Out's demeanor was calm and yet, it was a little apprehensive. He wasn't sure how his master was going to respond to his findings, but either way, he knew he was going to be upset. Knock Out got no reaction from Megatron, so he continued, "I don't think she knows who you are."

Megatron's expression immediately changed from anger to unease. What was his doctor trying to say? He clenched his eyes shut and for the first time since her capture, he gritted his teeth and spoke softly in a whisper toward her.

"On whose ship did you arrive here from...?" Megatron asked her.

She searched his face for the meaning of his question, but couldn't place where he was trying to head.

"This one?" She replied. She remembered seeing the corridor of the ship, therefore she remembered this ship.

Megatron's face furrowed and he growled, "No! Before this!"

She hesitated again before answering, trying to think, but she could remember just recently walking down the corridor of the ship, so why was he asking?

That's when Megatron started to notice the shape of her oval optics. They usually pierced him with fire and demise, but he could see nothing in them, they seemed to even be shaped differently. She was scared, but he had never seen her scared before. Where was the fire that she had so hatefully spit at him numerous times? Megatron scowled at her, but he also became terrified inside of his spark. Her processor was damaged, Knock Out had said, and he was a stranger to her. He hoped that it wasn't true, but he had to know.

"Get me the mind reader..." Megatron spoke slowly to Knock Out while still looking into her empty eyes. Megatron did notice now that the shape of her optics was different, and her bottom lip quivered slightly in his presence.

Knock Out moved fast and brought the cord over to the table. Megatron shoved him aside and grabbed the cord himself with a gruff and frustrated sound. He roughly pinned her shoulders down and she fought the uncomfortable grasp, grunting with sounds of protest. With one swift move, Megatron plugged the mind reader into the back of her head, and she fell limp.

Knock Out brought up her visual memories on screen and they watched intently. Replays of Megatron's face repeated over and over again from just a few minutes ago and then small blips of being carried down the long corridor of the Nemesis.

"Give me what happened before this, Knock Out." Megatron said.

"I'm trying, but there's a block, I can't get through." Knock Out said as he pounded away at the large keyboard in front of him.

"This can't be happening to me now...try harder!" Megatron shouted at the medic.

Knock Out shook his head, flustered, "I can't, either it's all been blocked, or erased."

Megatron gave out a powerful growl and slammed his hand against Knock Out's keyboard. He was frustrated beyond belief. How could at the most opportune time for him to seek revenge on this evil femme could she have gotten so badly damaged, that her memory had been compromised. He stomped over to the cord and yanked it out of her head and her optics came back online. She took a deep breath and then looked straight into Megatron's optics.

"Why now!?" He yelled at her.

She flinched and turned her head away.

"Why can't you just let me have my revenge on you, you demented, undeserving wretch!" He leaned into her, "Don't you even know your own name?!"

"Crumb." She answered to him, sure of it, repeating the name that he had called her just moments before.

"No! No, no NO!" Megatron took the broad side of his hand and lifted it as if he was going to slap her face. But he grit his teeth as it was raised when he saw the fear in her eyes and her hands coming up just below her chin in submission to guard her face. Striking her now would give him no satisfaction, and he slowly lowered his hand to his side.

"Revenge doesn't seem quite as satisfying now...you don't even know what you are being punished for, do you?" Megatron growled at her.

She slowly swayed her head from side to side, never taking her optics off of his face. He must have hated her for some reason. She must have done something previously that she couldn't remember that made him hate her so much. But for whatever fate's reasons were, she couldn't remember why. She couldn't reason either. It was obvious to her now that she had forgotten not just a brief period of her memory, but a longer span of time that must have included interactions with this great mech at some point.

"You tiny piece of scrap..." Megatron shook his head as he whispered his frustrations. "How dare you deny me my revenge" He grunted a frustrated chuckle, "And yet, it seems so like you."

Crumb couldn't think of what she was trying to remember, she didn't know where to start, and the more that the large mech in front of her ranted about her past behaviors, the more she wanted to know why.

She decided to try her luck by talking it out. "What did I do?"

Megatron frowned at her words but kept calm, now that he knew that she wasn't joking around with him. He fought the urge to show her all the documents, the history, her life evidence he had against her.

She repeated herself, "What did I do?" Her words were sincere, as if they weren't her own from Megatron's perspective. But then of course, it was like she was almost a different person completely. "Because...I," she stuttered over her words as she became intimidated by Megatron's intrusive glare, "I don't like this."

She talked like a child. Megatron remembered her speaking much more eloquently than this.

Megatron stepped back from her, his processor was torn on her fate now. Before, he had wanted to make her suffer, she had deserved no less. But, having this new realization made him have second thoughts and he realized that he was going to have to think about it. Sure he could push through with his first plans to make her scream in agony for the wrongdoings she'd done to him, but she wouldn't be screaming for the reasons he'd want her to be. What good would come from seeking revenge on someone whom he wanted dire reactions from. He knew that punishing her for the things that she couldn't remember wouldn't make him content.

"You've done things in the past that make you worthy of death...Crumb. You've broken the chains and the bridges of camaraderie and degraded those among you as if they were nothing." Megatron's words were deep, just like his glowing eyes, which lowered to her in a dangerously controlled manner, "You should be thankful for your loss of memory, because otherwise, you'd be screaming in agony from my tearing you limb from limb."

Megatron would have liked to tear her limb from limb with all the torment she's caused, but as he had already decided, that wouldn't be the best option, or the most fulfilling. Perhaps her rancid brother was still out there somewhere, trying to seek her out. It's because of him that she was who she was, so rumors had it. Megatron thought about his decision to turn revenge into something not torturous, but shameful. She would know no different, and his conscious wouldn't suffer.

He smirked at the thought rolling through his processor of degrading her to the lowest level of servitude there was, and how sweet revenge would taste if her brother were to find out his bitch sister was serving under the hands of the Decepticons, willfully.

Crumb licked her lips and swallowed hard as Megatron continued. The look on his face wasn't pleasant at all.

"We've never had an amiable relationship, so don't think that my mercy means anything to you." He spat. "If you want to stay here on this ship without trouble," He stopped his sentence and turned around, opening a compartment in the wall and rummaging through its contents, and then turned back to her when he found what he wanted. He continued his sentence, "You will wear this."

He held up the Decepticon badge, a symbol unbeknownst to her as shame and honor all in one.

"What is your answer?" Megatron raised his head to her.

Crumb stared at the symbol he held in front of her. She knew the symbol from those around her, they all wore it. The large silver mech in front of her wore it in the center of his chest. It seemed like an easy enough answer, she didn't know what else to do. She looked strangely down at her own body, sitting up as she did so, but she found no markings on her.

"Don't expect to find your faction...you were never apart of one, you held your pride too high to stoop so ..._low_." Megatron spoke to her, remembering how often she would remind both him and Optimus Prime of their petty excuses for armies. But little did she know that their numbers increased while hers decreased. Those that left the royal army joined the Autobots or the Decepticons, not wanting to serve underneath her and her brother's aimless quests for domination.

"Okay, I'll wear it." She said outright.

Megatron, astounded by her immediate acceptance, glanced to Knock Out, "Mark her position as Sanitation, level one." He threw the symbol at her face, nicking her paint slightly on the cheek. She flinched and then began to turn hot with embarrassment.

Knock Out caught the symbol before it hit the ground and prepared his welder, "Yes, Lord Megatron."


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh I couldn't wait! I had chapter 2 done and wanted it on because I think it's such an integral part of the beginning of the story, breaks all stigmas hopefully about memory loss.**

**Chapter 2**

_On the Nemesis..._

"There you go." Knock Out said to her with a sponge and bucket plopped down on the floor.

Crumb looked at the sponge and picked it up. She squeezed it ignorantly and looked it over. Knock Out didn't know the extent of her memory loss. Crumb just stared at the funny looking object. Knock Out sneered, when access is blocked to memories like hers was, even the simplest of tasks were hard for a person to grasp. Knock Out took the sponge from her and dipped it in the bucket, then wiped it on the walls and floors. Then he took the buffer and wiped the walls clean.

"Think you can handle that?" He said as he dropped the buffer by her side after showing her how.

Crumb watched him polish and buff, looked simple enough, so she picked up the sponge and mimicked exactly what Knock Out had done.

Knock Out sighed, he was going to have to have a talk with Megatron.

* * *

"Megatron, she doesn't know anything! And I'm not going to take my precious time to teach her! She knows basic words, basic feelings, and basic tasks, like walking...but THAT'S IT!" Knock Out complained to his superior.

"Hmmm.." Megatron hummed, " So you're saying that along with her memory, anything that has been taught to her is also gone?"

"It's like wiping a clean slate and starting over from scratch, I mean, it's not just memories! It's simple stuff like, skills and specific training. She didn't know what a sponge does!" Knock Out placed his hands roughly on his hips and continued, "Imagine...a sparkling child..."

"Go on..." Megatron roughly rubbed his face.

"That's where the state of her mind is at." Knock Out said, pacing. "I believe she will eventually remember, she will slowly gain her memory and skills back. To what pace that will happen I can't be sure of, but, I was able to scan her processor again and find a time span missing from beginning to end, which means, it's not erased. That in itself was progress just from yesterday."

"I want no one to breathe a word to her about her origins and speed up that process. I want to hang onto as much as her shame as I can, it pleases me to see her so undignified." Megatron turned to Soundwave, "Make sure everyone gets the memo Soundwave, no one is to address her as Princess, as royal, nothing about her past, she shall remain ignorant until time says so!" Megatron thought... "She may already know, but sparklings are naïve to the fact."

"Starscream, order a drone to teach her the sanitation duties of the ship...time won't be wasted." Megatron chuckled.

* * *

_Later that week..._

After basic training, Crumb polished the floors and the halls relentlessly, and when she wasn't doing that, she was scrubbing the facilities, removing dirty oil and neutralizing static ions from surfaces. She wiped her brow after a particularly dirty facility after Megatron's troops had returned from a short mining expedition. How long had it been now, maybe a week since she'd been on the ship? She couldn't stop her mind wandering though, through her tedious daily tasks, as to who she was before now. She had begun to formulate bigger and broader questions than she had from the beginning. She used to wonder why everyone hated her, but now she actually wondered reason.

She wouldn't have thought any different had he not have told her. She was regarded to have been a terrible person, but she didn't feel like she was terrible. Not feeling an ounce of spite or hatred toward Megatron made her question why there was such animosity from the past. Not even knowing who he was made the thought even harder. Maybe he was right. Maybe she should be thankful for not knowing where she came from, because it seemed as though she wouldn't have want to remember anyway. No one likes to feel bad.

She sat back on her haunches and sighed, glancing at herself in the reflective plating of the walls. She took a double take and peered at herself more closely. She was older than she remembered. She was surprised by the way she looked. But then, how did she know that? She didn't know what she knew and what she didn't know anymore. She looked at herself but didn't see anything old that would jog her memory, but she didn't see anything new either. It was all so confusing to her. Daily tasks were easy enough now, and how was it that she was able to function even basically? She sat and pondered.

Maybe if she tried to make good relations with Megatron and his army, then he may tell her a little more about herself that she didn't know. Why was such an integral part of her past lost in the far reaches of oblivion? She rubbed an aching spot on her head as she thought and flashes of large buildings and an old Cybertron began to flash in her vision. She began to tremble. Cybertron. Why wasn't she on Cybertron? Or was she? Her reasoning became faster and more evolved the more that she pondered.

She tried to remember Megatron. Megatron had been so furious at her when she came to. He was powerful, she didn't have to remember him in order to figure that out. He was the leader. How could she have made someone so powerful so angry in the past. Perhaps she was once powerful, perhaps they were enemies. She felt powerful inside, but where was it coming from? She looked at her reflection again, wasn't she supposed to be wearing a silver tiara? Was the tiara a toy at one point? As her forgotten memories tried to make sense of themselves, she shook her head trying to ward off a headache.

The way she figured it though, she had been given a second opportunity, and by the sounds of it, she didn't deserve it. She didn't think that he'd jest with her, he seemed much too serious to do that. He didn't seem cruel, unless given a reason to be. She wanted to find out more about him, and what she may have done to make him feel so vindictive. That would probably take time, so she dunked her sponge back into the charged bucket and continued to scrub.

* * *

Megatron rarely caught glances of her, but Knock Out reported on her almost everyday. The message was usually the same. 'She is working diligently and is not causing trouble', he would say. There wasn't much more to say than that. Her presence on the ship was isolated most of the time and a drone programmed to stand guard nearby would make sure that she wouldn't stray, nor would any mech on the ship bother her, being equally hated by all.

Megatron and Crumb did finally cross paths one day after a few days of not seeing each other. She was sweeping the halls manually and Megatron was on his way to the bridge. He stopped by her and looked inquisitively at her work. Crumb noticed his large feet by her primitive broom and she looked up to see him. She immediately dipped her head towards him and opened her mouth.

"My Lord," she greeted. She took her cues from all of the other mechs on the ship who called him 'Lord' and "Leige' among other omnipotent titles.

Megatron thrust his chest forward and locked his hands behind his back, a stance so indicative of his character, unyielding and unforgiving.

"Crumb." He regarded her, "I trust that your duties are punctual today?" He questioned her growing ovals of optics.

"Ahead of time, sir." She replied.

"I believe you mean schedule." Megatron corrected her. "But I see..." Megatron dropped his head to look at her handywork on the floor. She had been cleaning so much that there wasn't much to clean. The contents in front of her broom were small, and the rest of the corridor was spotless and more polished than he had ever seen it.

"Do I need to give you more duties then?" Megatron snarled in her direction.

Crumb hesitated in her answer, treading wisely around his unsympathetic attitude. She wanted to tell him no because then she wouldn't have time to keep things at this level of sanitation, but she retracted that thought quickly when she looked into his deep optics, fearing making him more angry. "Whatever you wish, sir..." she said.

Megatron had no intention of giving her anymore duties. In fact, he hadn't thought much about her at all lately. He was satisfied with her current position, and was contented seeing her clean the scrap and grunge from the ship, knowing she couldn't be any lower. He found it refreshing to see fear in her eyes rather than fire.

"Continue your current work." Megatron replied and he continued his stride down the hall.

Crumb looked after him, watching him in secret. The way he walked was even powerful, and his strides were long and deliberate. He was the largest mech on the ship, possibly the largest one ever, but she didn't know.

She received a double dose of interaction later that day as she was finishing up her sweeping. Starscream and Soundwave strode down a corridor that she was finishing up. Starscream wanted his turn to to give her a piece of his processor. He despised her for his own reasons, as well as her past anti-Decepticon attitude.

"Hah...look at you, you meaningless grunt. How things change." Starscream's insulting voice hit her back like ice, and she stopped to peer at him from the side.

The drone guarding her stepped closer and held up a hand, "You are not authorized to interact."

"Puh-lease.." Starcream responded, "A peon guarding a peon..." he smirked victoriously her direction, "You have no idea how much we've all waited for you to be in this circumstance, do you!?" He yelled. Soundwave took his shoulder and held him back from her, showing him that it is unwise to initiate conversation with Megatron's detainee.

"She.. " Starscream growled through his teeth in a high-pitched whine, "...once regarded us as filth! How do you like our filth now!" Starscream was enjoying seeing her cower to him but Soundwave nudged him forward, knowing that Megatron had instructed all of his crew to not say a word to her while she was aboard the ship. Anything that they said could be used to jog her memory, and Megatron was fierce to implement sanctions to ensure that it didn't happen.

As they walked away from her, Starscream spit lubrication on the floor that she had already cleaned, "Clean it up!" He demanded, and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

Crumb sighed dismally and felt her body shake with emotions she didn't understand. It wasn't the fact that she was on custodial duties that made her feel terrible. It was they way they all treated her on the ship. They all seemed to loathe her. Megatron could bury her in a hole with just the way he looked at her, but, what could she do about it? She had no way to fight back nor did she know anything about fighting anyway. As hopeless as things seemed, still she planned that she wouldn't be in this same situation in the near future. She had to find a way to change their attitudes, or it would eventually drive her crazy. She reluctantly got on her hands and knees to clean up Starscream's hateful spew.

* * *

_From the bridge of the ship..._

Megatron watched her from on a screen. Soundwave had notified him of her interactions with Starscream. Megatron sighed. Starscream always defied his rules. Over time, the fact that she still had no memory as to why she had been imprisoned by the Decepticon symbol didn't set well with him. Actually, he began to believe that things would be better this way. He didn't want her to remember the past. He wanted to keep it from her as much as he could. He still wondered if she felt remorse for things that she had done but didn't remember. He wondered if she would change her ways if he educated her on how she degraded him so many times with her words, with her actions, with no probable cause. He wondered how long the facade would last.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks readers for the support! **

**Ugh, I'm finding myself doing flashbacks, aaaargh I haaate flashbacks! But how else to do a backstory! blaegh. Heheh...and character development y u have to be slow! (patience...patience) I'm mostly typing this for myself... luv yo faces ;) ~K**

-Ch 3

Days after cleaning up Starscream's lube, no one else had approached her. Crumb wondered if word was going around to remind others to leave her alone. She had tried to forget the incident the best she could, and move on. But it was frustrating sometimes. There had to be something she could do, something to contribute as an act of kindness, something to change their minds, otherwise the misery would just continue. She laughed sarcastically at herself... well that's what they wanted wasn't it.

The drone led her to the next room she was to be working in, and her mind wandered while they walked. Long hallways and dim rooms. She remembered life being brighter than this, what she could remember so far. But she didn't know what she was missing from the past. It would have been easy to simply put a timeline in front of her and just show her what was missing, but of course, that would be too easy.

She came to the conclusion that she must have had relations with Megatron at some point, good or bad, maybe both. Had he always been the leader of the Decepticons? She didn't remember any such Decepticons, but she did remember the Alpha sector, the sector of Cybertron that her family ruled. She gasped at her realization, trying to hold on to the little bit of past that had flashed through her mind.

Eventually, she was scrubbing long tables and picking up the dust from the floor. Crumb's job was to clean the mess hall today. Stacks and stacks of energon cubes rested in the corner and even though she had cleaned the mess hall once before, it seemed as though it became more dusty than any other place in the ship. A small trail of footprints from the door to the stack was all the action that this room had seen.

She vaguely remembered mechs. Just mechs in general. Simple creatures. Something about the energon cubes jogged a simple memory from long ago, she almost remembered energon tasting better than this. Or maybe just different. Was it charged and spiced differently? This energon was so bland and simple. A vision came to her of mechs standing at a long table, shaking and stirring things into large cubes filled with blue and purple liquids. They were cooking. They were cooking a feast for a lot of people. She remembered fragrant and delicious odors, and one of the mechs showing her how to stir the cube. And as soon as the memory had appeared, it was gone again.

She had the sudden urge to do something nice for Megatron, to win his trust. If she did something nice for him, then maybe she wouldn't get heckled by the crew members, and himself. She wanted congeniality, something she had been lacking this whole time. She was tired of feeling depressed. As she cleaned the countertops and the sinks, she rummaged briefly through containers and cupboards to see what she could find. She opened a door in the wall which revealed a closet full of things. Something she missed on her last sanitation pass-through. She investigated, she was ahead of schedule anyways and used the extra time wisely to access her options.

Her optics fell on an old looking datapad. She reached for it and it activated with her touch. It read: _Essential Energon Compendium. _'This looks good...' she thought to herself and scrolled through its contents. She grinned at the find and breathed a fresh breath of hope. She would start making up for whatever she did, and she would start with this: The Energon Dessert, as titled.

...

Later that same evening, as Megatron was about to dismiss himself from the ship's bridge, Soundwave came to him with a communication link, from the mess hall.

"What is it?" He opened the comm-link in his audio receptors and the drone spoke back to him.

"Sir, Crumb has requested to speak with you." the drone replied.

Megatron wondered what this was all about, and questioned, "Has she finished all of her duties?"

"Affirmative." The drone replied.

"Very well, bring her to me." Megatron wondered what kind of queries she would bring to him. He prepared himself for her asking when she would stop her tasks in quest for more knowledge of her past. It was only inevitable. He turned around in his enormous chair when he heard the pair of footsteps from behind him. He acknowledged Crumb with a lift of his chin but then his optics focused on the glowing construction she held out to him in her small hands. The drone stood silently behind her.

"What do you want?" He snapped at her, agitated from his lack of recharge.

"Lord Megatron..." she regarded and she dipped her head slightly, "I brought you this..." she held out the confection in her hands, "I know it's not much but... it's a staple of my apology for whatever it was that I have done." She stiffly held it out to him while he ran his optics over her and over the confection. Her demeanor was that of an unsure young adult. Mature, but cautious.

"What is this?" He sneered, wondering how she had changed in such a short amount of time, did a part of her memory come back to her?

"I made it, for you...it's an energon dessert." She stated.

Megatron began to smirk from both sides of his mouth in humor, "A mere dessert is but a speck of an atom in comparison to what you have to apologize for, Crumb."

He noticed the immediate disappointment in her facial expressions and her arms dropped slightly.

Megatron twisted himself upright. Folding his head to the side in frustration, he took the confection from her and looked it over. "How did you know how to make this?" he said.

"I read directions..." she replied.

"You know how to read now?" Megatron burst back and then glanced at Knock Out, trying to analyze the situation.

"Now?" she said as if she didn't know that she couldn't just a few days before. "But I was taught when I was young how to cook. It's something I really enjoy." she smiled slightly and nodded. Then it hit her. He was surprised to see her memory come back, at least a small portion.

Indeed Megatron saw it immediately and tried to change the subject.

"When did you have time to make this?" Megatron asked, "Haven't I kept you busy enough?"

Crumb nodded, "Yes you have, but I worked efficiently on my last task that I had time left over. I-" she stuttered, "I wanted to do something else..."

"Why?" Megatron blankly asked, holding the confection in his one massive hand.

"I don't know." She replied honestly.

Megatron peered into her optics to see what her real purpose was. He couldn't find anything other than innocent hope and inquisition. Wherever the fiery bitch sat dormant beneath these unfamiliar, innocent eyes, he hoped that she had nothing to do with the confection.

He had drawn an audience though, the crew had stopped working on their tasks at their own stations, peering around to see what Megatron would do.

"Steve, Knock Out." Megatron commanded. Both mechs hurried to Meagtron's throne and he gave the confection to Steve. "Audit," he commanded.

Steve and Knock Out looked at each other confused. Steve looked at the confection in his hand and then removed his visor. Knock Out took one of his tools and assessed the energon for poisons and toxins. He found nothing. Steve proceeded to take a bite.

All eyes were on Steve. Steve's face turned bright red when he swallowed the energon and immediately took another bite, "It's good!" He said.

"Give me that!" Megatron swatted the energon back from his drone and looked at Knock Out.

"I couldn't find anything malicious." Knock Out said and shrugged.

Megatron lifted the confection up to his mouth. His optics rested on Crumb, who waited intently for him to proceed. He took a bite.

All the flavors and charges that he could taste were phenomenal. He chewed slowly at first and then faster, swallowing hard, wanting more, but he resisted. Such a small gesture, but with a large impact. Their energon had become so tasteless over time, that it was almost a chore to eat sometimes. It tasted good, he had to admit to himself, really good. He tried to make more time for himself to think about what to say to her by turning it over in his hand, examining it. He wasn't about to compliment her cooking anytime soon with the rest of the crew watching, but he had to say something.

"You strayed from your duties, Crumb." Megatron told her, setting the energon confection down on the armrest beside his large body. He saw the disappointment grow in her face again and he continued before he had to look at the emotion much longer, "But I'm sure we can make time in your duties for you to concoct more of these for the rest of my crew, I'm sure you need something else to do to keep you from wasting your time."

Crumb's face lit up in success. She boldly sighed and grinned at him. It was at least a start. He resisted the urge to eat the rest of the confectionery, his mouth now hungry for more, but he was reluctant to give her that satisfaction.

"Yes sir." She said, bowing shallowly to him and the drone led her away to her bunk.

Megatron was torn on his reaction. He could have been harder on her. He SHOULD have been harder on her. He shook his head, wondering why he was letting himself give her mercy. He sat in silence and remembered one of their first encounters...

_Flashback to the beginning of the war:_

_They had already destroyed the Alpha sector, and most of the monarchies were disabled. Except that one. The Warcry, the royal ship holding the king, prince, and princess that usually circled their own sector, was on a quest, to stop any chance of Autobot or Decepticon takeover on Cybertron. Their numbers were small, but what else were they to do?_

_Megatron had started to lead an army of flyers towards to find Vector Sigma, the database of Cybertronian data for his own conquest, but on one such day, a mighty ship blocked their path._

_"__Get that mischevious ship out of MY AIR!" Megatron commanded. He had expanded Kaon, and with it, control of the skies around it, which included the Alpha and Gamma sectors._

_"__Make me!" a communication link hollered back to Megatron._

_Megatron grunted static into his communication link, "Firestone, take that ship out of my sky or else!"_

_"__Or else what?" Prince Firestone laughed on the other end of the communication._

_Megatron had received enough of the Prince's games, and he decided to take things into his own hands for once. Megatron broke the rank he led and guided himself to the deck of the ship where inhabitants of the ship were, including the bastard himself. Megatron landed hard on the deck, sending a frightful shiver through the ship._

_Firestone didn't budge, though Megatron didn't miss the small step he took when he had landed. Megatron took a look at his surroundings, only a handful of crew, and the princess were standing, gawking at him. Megatron had actually forgotten about the rest of the royal family other than the boisterous prince, as the others didn't make as much of a commotion._

_"__Firestone, you fail to see that your army dwindles and shall be powerless against me if you choose to engage. Something you should know first-hand..." Megatron sent him a hateful smirk._

_Firestone, enraged from Megatron's reminder of his loss in the ring, growled and spit lube at Megatron's feet, "You low-class scraplets can have your air space back once I am done traversing it!" and he held his head high, looking down on Megatron. But Megatron was having none of it._

_"__I own this air space motherfucker!" Megatron said and thrust himself forward and in a split-second, held the prince to the ground, choking his airways and his cannon aimed at his abdomen._

_"__Guaaards!" The prince choked out._

_"__Decepticons!" Megatron roared._

_Somehow, between the fight on the ground and the arrival of guards and a scattering of Decepticon flyers, another hand had gotten itself jammed between Megatron and Firestone._

_"__Get off him you low-class destitute!" was a femme voice close to Megatron's audio receptor. Megatron had enough respect to not get a femme involved but he looked her direction and sure enough, it was the princess. Megatron looked into her red optics, screaming for justice but also... hinting of innocence and naivety._

_Firestone took the opportunity when Megatron was distracted to fire at him whether or not his brat sister was in the way, he didn't care, he just wanted to keep face. Firestone shot wherever he aimed and a body did fly backward, but it wasn't Megatron. The prince panicked and fired again, this time shooting into the air._

_"__You're such a lousy shot!" Megatron roared, but his own chance to shoot was quickly taken away by the surrounding of the royal crew._

_"__He shot the princess!" The prince yelled. "Get him!"_

_Megatron didn't push it any farther, he had the backup in the sky, "I can't be bothered wasting my time here..." Megatron growled from above him and quickly transformed into his flying form and burst off the ship before any crew could know what was happening._

The memory faded back into reality for Megatron, and he found himself rubbing his chin deep in thought. He had fought so hard for what he believed in, and those monarchies had no idea how to run a state full of people. They were handed everything, so to them, they never knew what it felt like to work for their keep, for their energy, for their life. They just didn't know how it felt to work from the bottom up. That's why they could never see optic-to-optic on anything, and never would. Could it be that he was feeling gratification from seeing the princess working her way around the bottom? It was better than torture by far, because at least this way, if she lived to ever get off the ship, she would take a little bit of that education with her.

Megatron sighed, 'or not,' he also thought, but then cast the thought aside to go recharge.


End file.
